Return to Home PageContinental Glaciers
Continental glaciers cover the entire extent of Greenland that is huge glaciers blanket over 1.8 million sq. Km. (over 700,000 sq. miles) in area and more than 2700 m (more than 9,000 feet) in maximum thickness. This glacier flows slowly outward from two centers, one on the southern part of the island and one in the north. Because of its thickness the Greenland ice sheet rises far above both the valleys and hills of the land beneath it, and the underlying rock is exposed only near the seacoast, where the glaciers breaks up into tongues of ice somewhat resembling valley glaciers. From the end of these tongues, where they reach the sea, larger and small fragments of ice break off during the summer, forming icebergs. A glacier similar type covers the whole of the Antarctica continent and has an area of about 13-million sq. km. (about 5million sq. miles). Continental glaciers covered much of North America during the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period, which ended about 10,000 years ago. A larger area of permanent pack of ice is know as an ice field, because of its flat surface and uniform thickness. The massive weight of the ice has depressed earth’s crust, and many parts of Antarctica have been pushed down below sea level. An ice shelf is a thick layer of ice that starts on land and extends out into the sea. The term ice sheet is used for larger masses of ice.